Lincoln's Ethan Telfair has gotten off to a fast start for the Railsplitters. Photo: William Thomas

For the first time in his basketball life, he’s not Sebastian Telfair’s little brother.

He’s Ethan Telfair, Lincoln’s heady, talented and under control point guard.

After a big summer on the AAU circuit with the Long Island Lightning, Telfair is off to a roaring start for Lincoln, the key to the Railsplitters so far with star sophomore Isaiah Whitehead missing three of those games.

He’s enjoyed the best two games of his young career recently, putting up nine points, seven steals and six assists in a dominant 58-41 home win over loaded South Shore and then going for 18 points and eight assists in Tuesday’s gutty 75-71 road in at rival Thomas Jefferson.

“I’m happy, I’m excited I’m starting to get recognized a little more,” he said. “It’s just time. I was patient and I guess it’s my time to show everybody I’m Ethan Telfair, not Sebastian’s little brother. I am somebody.”

It nearly didn’t happen. Telfair considered getting out of Coney Island and leaving Lincoln this summer after he felt his name was being smeared after he was arrested in May on gun possession charges with Lincoln teammate Shaquille Davis after an incident in Coney Island’s O’Dwyer Gardens Houses. Instead, after several talks with family, he stayed put – the best decision, Telfair said, he’s ever made.

Lincoln coach Dwayne (Tiny) Morton, who coached Sebastian, has seen a different person and a different player since Telfair’s brush with the law. He’s become more focused and his grades have improved, like “he was brought back to Earth.” When he wasn’t with the Lightning or with Morton over the spring and summer, he was working out with his older brother Jamel Thomas, the former Lincoln and Providence College star.

“I know he’s grounded and understands that if you want to play basketball [at the next level], you have to work hard, you have to be smart,” Morton said. “He’s stepped up his game, his academics. Everybody has seen a difference in him.”

“It definitely matured me,” Telfair said. “I see what life is for some people and that’s not the life I want at all. At that point in time, I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It made me, I wouldn’t say more hungry, but probably more focused.”

College coaches have noticed. Telfair’s recruitment has picked up. One coach familiar with him thinks he can play Division I basketball, most likely at the mid-major level, if not higher.

“He’s got great bloodlines and a great understanding for the game,” the coach said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “He’s a very competitive point guard who can control the game.”

As the coach said, Telfair has shown an acute feel for the game. Against Jefferson, he picked the right spots to look for his shot and when to find teammates. He hit three 3-pointers, which he gets from Thomas, he joked. Whitehead’s absence left a glaring scoring void, which Telfair has helped fill, but he also knows his job description.

“Him not playing, I wasn’t gonna come out and force anything and try to be the star, try to win the game by myself,” he said. “We won those games together. It was a team thing.”

For now, Telfair is focused on the present, guarding national prospect Aquille Carr in Lincoln’s big non-league contest Saturday against Paterson (Md.) at Towson Unversity in Maryland and continuing to get better.

Following his older brother at Lincoln was difficult, everybody expecting so much of him so soon. His first two years were more about learning and watching Shaquille Stokes, who is now at Hawaii.

“I sat back, I learned and now I’m showing what I’ve learned,” he said.

He actually doesn’t mind being thought of as Sebastian’s little brother, though — that’s how much he thinks of his blood. The two talk daily, Sebastian reminding him to stay humble and keep putting in the hours in the gym.

“He did great things, he did a couple of things most people will never be able to touch,” Ethan said. “But I’m getting noticed.”